Cancel some but... and i now this sounds stupid... to get a good credit score you need to buy something then pay it off the following month in full. So if it's a bit dodgy (your score) try doing that fora acouple of months but must be paid off straight away!
Good luck!!

yup, even if they are late now, If the lender hasn't "closed it out" then it is a line of credit with an older date

store cards do not expire, they want you to come spend more money! Most of the retailers can pull up your account info at the store, or put you in contact with there credit issuer's customer service.

with your name addy ss info and moms maiden name, city of birth, you can get access to you accounts.

or you can sign up for something like freecreditreports.com and look up the phone numbers off your account.

http://www.privacyguard.com is another good one. You need a credit card to sign up but it only charges $1. From there you can view all 3 reports. I used freecreditreport.com but it was not free. If you don't pay the monthly fee to them they limit your access.

You can get free credit reports from the government site.. annualcreditreport.com You can get one report from each of the three credit reporting agencies each year. The reports are free. If you want your FICO score you can get it added on (I think for $6). I stagger my reports through the year so I always have a general idea of what is on it, and what has been corrected.

Some times you can hurt your credit score more by canceling a lot of cards. There is tons of information on the web about building your score. Do some research before canceling a bunch of cards.

I keep talking to all my friends about this because even though me & my fiance are broke, our credit score is on the rise. We did a TON of research on how to fix our credit. Here's what raised our credit score over 100 points in less than a year.... true story.

1.) Pay all credit cards ON TIME!!!!!! That is the biggest one.

2.) ALWAYS pay more than the minimum due. Even if it's only $5 more. I generally shoot to send $10 or more above the minimums to help keep the $7 finance charges at bay. I always pay as much as I can, but ALWAYS more than the minimum due.

3.) Once balances are low, never let them rise more than 1/4 your TOTAL available credit on a particular card. IE: have $800 credit limit, NEVER carry a balance higher than $200.

4.) DON'T CLOSE ANY CARDS! You don't have to use all your cards, so cut up the one's you don't want to use if necessary. But don't close them. You're TOTAL available credit versus your balance owed is crucial to your credit. So, you WANT HIGH available credit. & LOW balance owed.

5.) Paying balances in full EVERY month can actually work against you UNLESS you know when each of your card companies report info to the credit reporting agencies. If you max your card on the 1st & pay it in full on the 28th, EVERY month, but your credit company reports to the credit agencies on the 15th every month, you CONSTANTLY look like you have maxed out cards. The only positives, is that they get word that you paid in full & on time, hopefully, on time. So, be careful paying in full. It's better just to keep the balances really, really low so you don't drown in interest.

Jackies is right about the website. That's where I go, too. I do the same thing, every 4 months, I pull from one of the 3 credit agencies free annual report. Keep in mind, that each report can vary HUGELY. One of the reports has my dad listed as my husband in a car he helped me buy when I was 19 with no credit! LOL! It's been a pain to get that fixed.

So, in the end, you want to pay on time, pay more than the minimum, keep your cards open even if you don't use them, & keep your cards balances low or non-existant.

Never use more than 1/4 your available credit unless you know you can pay it off right away. You'll get eaten alive by interest charges.

So, have $10,000 available credit but only use $100 of it. :-)

Sorry for the rant, but I noticed that emmag said you have to use it by purchasing someing & pay it in full the next month to get a good credit score. It's a common misconception (I used to believe it) that you have to use all your cards. You don't. You can have 10 cards & use one & have excellent credit as long as you pay all your "charges" & "fee's" that each card charges each month/year on time. My mom followed my advice (tooting my own horn, sorry) 2 years ago, & today her credit score is 815. She's not rich, she's got debt, but just by paying on time, more than the minimum & then keeping the balances low once she got them down, she's accomplished a lot & was able to help me get a house.

Now, if I could just figure out a way to make more money so I don't have to rely on the credit card for groceries/bills. ;-)